The first rule of WRiTE CLUB.....

Welcome to the first meeting of WRiTE club.This is an ambitious undertaken whose inspiration was born numerous weeks ago during an exercise of mine comparing different writers voices (You Sure Do Talk Funny), it gestated in the back of my mind for awhile, then finally crystallized over the weekend. I've seen versions of this concept around the internet before, but nothing quite like this.I'm hoping that the unique approach and your participation will set us apart. At the essence of WRiTE CLUB is simplicity, good-natured competition, and a lot of potential fun.Here are the basic rules, or tenets, with further explanation to follow.

1st RULE: You do not talk about WRiTE CLUB.

2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about WRiTE CLUB.

3rd RULE: If someone taps out, WRiTING is over.

4th RULE: Only two people to a WRiTE.

5th RULE: One WRiTE per week.

6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.

7th RULE: WRiTES will go on until Feb1.

8th RULE: If this is your first week at WRiTE CLUB, you HAVE to WRiTE.

How does WRiTE CLUB really work?Every writer who wishes to WRiTE should submit a 250 word sample of their WRiTING via email to dlh.hammons@gmail.com.The sample should be identified by a pen name of your choosing (be creative) that nobody has ever seen before.The WRiTING can be of any genre, any style (even poetry) with the word count being the only restriction.My wife will be monitoring that email address and will assign a number to each sample we receive.I will never see who belongs to what writing, other than by the pen-name.Beginning on November 7th, the first WRiTE will be held. On that date I will randomly select two of these anonymous entries and post them for head to head competition .The winner will be selected by WRiTE spectators via their votes left in the comments (you don't have to be a WRiTER to vote, anyone can participate).Ties will be decided by me (if necessary) since I will have not seen any of the authors names.The victor will automatically be eligible for the semi-finals that will begin February 1, 2012, and the runner up will be placed back in the pool for possible selection for the next weeks WRiTE. It's that simple!

There are few other details and definitions to clarify.Let's address them one by one from the rules above.

1. Pretty self-explanatory *shaking head side to side*

2.Are you learning impaired? *exaggerated wink*

3.Tapping out means a WRiTER can decide at any time during the 12 week competition to withdraw their name from the pool.

4.This is a head-to head competition, no ganging up allowed.

5.No matter how many submissions I receive, there will only be one WRiTE per week.

6. Come on, tell me you didn't giggle at that one.

7.On February 1st the 12 winners will start to match up against one another on daily posts until the ultimate WRiTER is chosen.

8.Each week any new submissions will be placed in a "newby" pool from which one half of the WRiTE will be made up.The other WRiTER will come from the existing pool.If there are no "newbies", both WRiTERS will come from the existing pool less the previous winners.

After the competition is over and we have a final champion, I will release the true names of only the WRiTERs who allow it.Otherwise, the competition will remain completely anonymous to prevent anybody from having their feelings, or pride, hurt.It will also be fun trying to figure out which writing might be who's, but remember RULE #1.

I know they'll be questions, so go ahead and leave them in the comments section and I'll post the answers in a follow-up post, but I'll go ahead and answer one right now.Why the little "i" in WRiTE?Simple, WRiTE CLUB is about our community and finding creative ways to shine a spotlight on some very good writing.AlthoughI may be the facilitator, it's not about...I.

Are you game?Are you willing to WRiTE for what you want?Then crack those knuckles and get ready to flex that imagination.And whatever you do, DON'T tell your friends.DON'T blog...DON'T twit...DON'T post a Facebook status update about it. ;)